


Spend Your Sunsets With Me

by Spencer_Grey



Series: It's Just The Coming Of The Seas [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M, MAKE IT CANON, Steelatom - Freeform, Whump, i will die for this ship, im begging you, listen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 23:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19328731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spencer_Grey/pseuds/Spencer_Grey
Summary: Nate and Ray are together, finally. But it's not as smooth as it seems.





	Spend Your Sunsets With Me

“Yeah, we know.”

Nate’s jaw dropped and Ray started stumbling over his words. _They knew?_ And it was Mick that said it. Were they so obvious that even _Mick_ had realised?

“Did you guys really think you were being subtle about it?” Zari asked. _Well, yes, actually._

Charlie dramatically grabbed onto Zari’s shoulders, shaking her as she lowered her voice to say, “Oh, _bro_ , it’s been ten minutes since I saw you, bro.”

“Bro, I missed you so much, bro. Don’t leave me, bro,” Zari replied in an equally as bad imitation of the boys. She pretended to swoon into Charlie’s arms. The girls burst into laughter as they held each other.

Even Mick cracked a smile.

“I think we knew before you two did,” Sara teased.

Nate’s hand suddenly became clammy at that comment. Even when Ray gave it a reassuring squeeze, Nate couldn’t feel much over his heart beating out of his chest.

“Oh, alright then.” Ray half chuckled, half scoffed. “Guess this was a waste of time.”

The team laughed. They spent that day discreetly slipping each other what bets were owed. Somehow Charlie ended up making more money that Sara, which did not go down well.

Nate and Ray laughed along with them. What were they so worried about? Everything went fine, plus, the added teasing only proves how okay they are with it.

This went much better than Ray expected it, but somehow worse than Nate did.

-

Ray wasn’t surprised when he found Nate. He didn’t even have to try very hard, the library or the kitchen were Nate’s safe spaces on the ship. When Ray found Sara and Ava in the kitchen, Ava having heard the news given by how her and Sara reenacted the previous mockery, the library was his next stop.

Ray was even less surprised when he found that Nate was rearranging the bookshelves into some new system only he would understand. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, nearing the couple dozen mark. Ray realised it was a kind of therapy for Nate, a way to physically sort out his thoughts and feelings.

So Ray didn’t interrupt, he simply took a seat at the desk and watched in slight amusement as Nate muttered under his breath, moving back and forth to carry books to their new place.

Nate turned frantic suddenly, pushing books away when he determined them useless. He rushed from stack to stack, scowling when they weren’t whatever he was looking for.

The change from serene actions to this hectic pace unnerved Ray. He could see Nate’s lips moving and in the heavy silence, Ray could just pick up the small whispers.

“Battle of. . .” Nate moved to another stack of books. “Battle of. . .”

“Yarmuk?” Ray picked up the sole book on the desk and guessed.

Usually he kept quiet until Nate noticed him, rather letting Nate come back to reality on his own terms, but it seemed Ray’s interruption didn’t change that.

Nate took the book from Ray, scanning its cover and his glassy eyes seemed to like what he saw. Nate carefully placed the book onto a shelf, completing the series, but his hand lingered on the spine.

_There he is._

“How long have you been here?” Nate turned to face Ray, the normal amount of confusion mixing into his grin.

“Long enough to know something’s up.”

The smile dropped and Nate hesitantly carried on his with small tirade, but it had lost its effect. Ray was slowly but surely learning how to draw Nate from inside his head. Teaching him to trust others was proving to be a more difficult task, but Ray was stubborn; more than Nate at times.

“We didn’t get to tell them,” Nate muttered.

“Why is that so bad?”

It had struck Ray then, that maybe he couldn’t fix everything of Nate, a daunting thought really. Because sometimes he didn’t have all the answers, like right then, but how else was he supposed to help.

Nate gave him a look that made his heart sink. The mix of betrayal and you won’t get it was so foreign on Nate’s soft face, and made him look so much older and so different from what Ray had come to love.

“Ray.” Nate’s tone was deadly serious. “How did people react when you came out?”

 _Oh_.

Unable to break away from Nate’s gaze, or to lie to him, Ray spoke.

“It was. . . not bad. I mean, sure there were a few people who weren’t so happy about it, but it could’ve been worse.” Ray shifted in the chair. For the first time he was uncomfortable talking to Nate; understanding where this conversation was heading. “What happened to you?” he asked sheepishly.

Nate sat on the ground cross legged and pulled the nearest book into his lap. He flipped through the pages until he took a deep breath.

“I never got the opportunity to tell my parents, or anyone, really,” Nate said solemnly, keeping his gaze on the book. “I had a boyfriend, we were both closeted. And one day, someone saw us kissing, and then the whole school knew. And when I got home that day,” Nate ignored the tears forming, “my parents had found out.”

Ray moved so he sat in front of Nate, taking his hands and squeezing them.

“My dad, he - he wasn’t happy, to say the least.”

What went unsaid was the worst part.

“Nate,” Ray started, but there was nothing to say.

Nothing that could fix what happened, what happened years ago and what happened only hours before. How couldn’t Ray think that his experiences were not universal? Some part of him prayed they were, though, to save Nate from that kind of pain.

“I just wanted to have control this time, you know?”

“Nate,” Ray repeated more sternly, making the other look at him. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. But it’s different this time, I promise.”

Ray almost wished Nate hadn’t looked at him. So then, Ray wouldn’t have seen the complete and utter devastation in his eyes, the raw, unguarded emotion swimming behind the still pouring tears. But Ray decided to focus on only one piece of that thought.

 _Unguarded_. Nate was putting so much trust into Ray right then, giving himself and all the bad parts that used to be locked and chained where no one would see them. And this time was more incredible than all the other times Ray got those small glimpses into Nate’s mind. This time it was him, no influence loosening his tongue, no sleep deprivation to steal his control.

This was Nate and only Nate, every piece of Nate.

Every piece of the man Ray loved.

Nate nodded, not really sure what he was saying yes to, but it mostly went to saying he was still there, still with Ray.

“And hey,” Ray said, “if you want to, we can go grab the jumpship right now and you can go tell as many people as you want. You can have full control over everything.”

Nate let out a breathy laugh. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against Ray’s.

“Nah. I’m perfect right here,” he said.

“You are pretty perfect, Nate.”

Before Nate could retaliate with his own compliment, Ray closed the gap between their lips.

God, Ray could always make Nate melt, could always make everything completely irrelevant compared to himself, to Ray, to them together. He could make them fuse into one being. A being that existed purely in bliss and love, so much love Nate never thought he could have.

He might have had it once, years ago before _everything_ happened. And he let it slip from his fingertips, watched it crash and break on the ground, watched himself lose all meaning. Who was he without that love.

Then he met Ray, and Ray could always make Nate feel like himself.

Nate did something to Ray, gave him this unbridled passion that drove him mad, made him breathless just thinking about it, thinking about Nate, about them together. Ray wasn’t made for such intensity, but if he broke apart, then so be it.

He’d let himself lose pieces of his being, if it meant having Nate close, having him pressed against him.

They only needed each other to live, to breath, to feel.

The feverish need to touch and be touched was so deep that they clumsy pawed at each other until somehow they ended up shirtless on the library floor; Ray leaning over Nate and admiring him like the night sky, like he was the only piece of art to ever be painted.

And Nate looked up at Ray, he saw their past in his mouth, their present in his eyes, and their future on his body. He wanted to explore, to learn every word in their history.

Finally, they were both home. And despite their pain, the hurt that may never truly heal, they had each other, and would have each other forever. If time could be frozen, they would keep this moment going for the rest of eternity. Because this was everything they needed and so much more. 


End file.
